EES scheme begins in Lanzarote today, here’s what you need to know

Today is the date when Arrecife’s César Manrique Airport will start to phase in the new EES system, which requires the scanning of fingerprints and facial features for non-EU visitors

Airport sources inform us that Lanzarote will introduce the scheme cautiously, operating a few machines at first and gradually bringing in more so that any problems can be identified and addressed as the roll-out progresses. With 1.6 million arrivals from outside the EU every year – the vast majority of whom are British tourists – it is vital that Lanzarote gets this right.

If you pass through one of the machines in the next few days, we’d like to hear what you thought.

How it works

Passengers arriving at a Schengen border will have four fingerprints from their right hand scanned automatically. A biometric facial scan will also be taken.

Passengers will also have to pass through the existing e-Gates that check passports. Manual passport stamping for non-resident visitors will continue until 6 months after the EES scheme is fully operational next April.

On subsequent journeys, EES machines will scan and check fingerprints and facial features against existing records (although we cannot confirm if this will apply to all passengers or random samples). For privacy reasons, information will be erased automatically from the database after three years and new scans will be registered.